Does it really matter if some people can’t buy from you?

Hi again 👋

Someone replied to last week’s email with a fair question (shared with permission).

“Does it really matter if some people can’t buy from you?”

It’s a reasonable challenge, but I’ve never come across a business that intentionally excludes customers who are actively trying to buy.

People don’t complete purchases for lots of reasons, every day. Maybe the price isn’t right, they are comparing options or they get distracted.

But when a business has already spent time, effort, and money getting someone onto their site, the last thing they want is the site itself stopping the sale. At that point, this isn’t a missed sale - it’s wasted acquisition spend.

The customer hasn’t rejected the business. The business has rejected the customer.

In a physical shop, this would be unthinkable. If someone walks up to the door ready to come in, you would not put a barrier in their way, or move everything up to the top shelf and hope they try harder. You would fix the problem immediately.

Take this online, and when the same thing happens there’s often no complaint, just a lost customer - forever (and often they’ll go to your accessible competitor…).

That’s why this matters.

When someone wants to give you money and can’t, that isn’t bad luck. It’s a product problem.

Accessibility is not about doing something extra for a few people.
It’s about making sure you don’t block customers who are actively trying to buy.

Thoughts? Hit reply and let me know.

Talk soon,
Dave

P.S. Thanks for reading - have a great rest of your day.